Museu Cargaleiro — Attraction in Castelo Branco

An interesting collection of the works of the contemporary artist Manuel Cargaleiro, including ceramics and painting. The museum is constituted of two buildings, historic and contemporary. In the historic building mainly exhibits the ceramics, divided in to different rooms based on the patterns. Besides, the library and the shop are also in this building. Meawhile, the contemporary building hosts the artist's paintings, contemporary ceramics. The museum is open Tuesday to Sunday 10AM–1PM, 2–6PM.

(The historic building dates back to the 18th century and it was named "Solar dos Cavaleiros". This building was a place to shelter lonely women with rough life stories and also for unwanted children. There is the remaining of a window at the reception of the museum where in the past the parents of the unwanted child used to leave their baby and a person from inside the house will take the baby. the structure of that window was designed in a way that people from the inside would not see the person who left the baby, to protect...

A very neat clean gallery devoted primarily to the work of Cargaleiro. Personally I was very disappointed as I felt that the majority of the "art" could have been created by a 3 year old using the non dominant hand. If this is what sells then I should become an artist and retire. There was also an exhibition of some glazed...

If you have any interest in the history of ceramics the museum has a fine selection of tableware. The Cargaleiro section covers a large selection of his work and some excellent examples by internationally renowned ceramic artists. A really worthwhile visit. The museum staff were extremely helpful...